Posted on 10/02/2011 6:25:01 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Washington state is preparing to limit Medicaid coverage of emergency room visits for non-emergency care.
State officials have notified clients that they will get coverage for only three of those visits each year starting Saturday. Additional visits will not be covered, and patients may be billed for that care.
(Excerpt) Read more at khq.com ...
***To fix it, the hospitals need to set up triage nurses at the door. Do not let these people register or make it to the waiting room. If the problem is determined to be non-emergent, call their MD and make an appointment for them for when the MD can see them and send them on the way. Before they get in the hospital to even sit down.***
I hope you have presented your brilliant idea to the Hospital trustees;) Common sense and practical. If the patients don’t already have an MD - the hospital should have an ‘outpatient’ area staffed with PAs and rotating GPs.
The upswing in “urgent care centers’ is clearly the best way to solve Emergency Room abuse.
I imagine it will get worse once Obamacare really kicks in.
IBD poll: 45% of doctors would consider quitting under Obamacare
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/15/ibd-poll-45-of-doctors-would-consider-quitting-under-obamacare/
Tell him to move to Texas.
For those who are on welfare, instead of billing, simply deduct the amount from their next month's welfare or food stamp allocation. But that would make to much sense and would be too effective, so the lawyers would bar that.
Bigger TV, nicer chairs, vending machines right down the hall, someone to pick up after the kids when they toss their trash on the floor. I recently saw a family of gypsys that had pretty much overtaken every waiting room on the entire floor. They were there for days while one of their elders was being treated.
They had a tableful of grocerybags, and a big crockpot set up in one of the waiting rooms. My family had to go to another floor of the hospital to find a quiet place to rest.
“Actually, turning them away is a Federal crime.”
“Lawsuits are a minor problem, compared to EMTALA.”
What follows is a serious proposition (not sarcasm or a joke):
Why not “subscription-only” hospitals WITHOUT “emergency rooms”?
That is, a hospital that is purpose-built to serve ONLY those who are pre-enrolled in medical plans, either through third-party insurers or perhaps through a “direct-paid” subscription from individuals/families (kind of like “concierge” doctors)?
Like the line from “Field of Dreams”:
“If you built it, they will come.”
Turn this around:
“If you DON’T build it, they WON’T come.”
That is to say, provide extensive medical services withOUT handling emergencies, and they will have no choice but to go somewhere else.
What does the law say about that?
Just wonderin’....
A CEO at a New England hospital stated a number of years ago that “85% of the trips to the Emergency Room really weren’t emergencies.” I’m not sure whether he was talking about his specific hospital or some sort of regional average, though...
About two months ago on a Saturday morning my daughter and son in law were told by the pediatrician to bring my granddaughter to the ER. Unbeknownst to the doctor and my daughter the hours for the ER on Saturday and Sunday had been changed to noon to 5 only. No doctors or nurses available. All kinds of people there bleeding, moaning, one kid had blood dripping from his head. They were all told to either sit there til noon or come back at noon. None of them were seen or registered to be seen. Hospital security was there to make sure people didn't complain too loudly. My granddaughter ended up being taken to another ER on the other side of town. They were in and out in three hours.
“Tell him to move to Texas.”
These are my In Laws I’m talking about. Is there someplace further away? ;)
IF he can’t make a living any longer. You have a choice...let them come to Texas and make a living or move in with you. ;o)
Why even three a year?
I'm guessing he's talking regional average. Most people in the ER are not there because of emergencies, most of them can't speak English. The average ER wait is upwards of 10 hours, yeah I said 10 hours, that equates to a full days work plus overtime. My son had a concussion many years ago, we sat there for over an hour before he was registered to be seen and then another 9 hours before he was actually seen. We arrived at 1pm - one woman had been there for hours suffering from symptoms that resembled a heart attack, she kept calling for a nurse and demanding to see a doctor, they ignored her. Finally she started sweating profusely, struggling to breathe, grabbing her arm then her chest, look of terror on her face, several of us rushed over to the registration desk demanding someone see this woman - the nurses blew us off, finally someone went past the nurse into the exam rooms and found a doctor, meanwhile the woman was on the bench not breathing while another patient and hospital security was giving her CPR. A nurse strolled over with a look of disgust on her face, not because no one had bothered to tend to this woman but because she thought the woman was faking. They put her in a wheelchair and took her away. We found out later that the woman was left on a gurny in a hallway and had passed away.
Kidding aside, the office across from his takes DSHS patients only. Two years ago that office was standing room only, and patients were often waiting on the steps outside. Today they cut services to the DSHS children only, and the office often sits empty. They had to let most of their staff go.
Years ago, I had to take my wife to the emergency room (she did have a qualifying issue). What I found on a Saturday afternoon...was twenty people in front of us....and most had nothing to do with broken bones, bleeding or anything that would be an emergency. I remarked about this to the nurse and she agreed with me....but you can’t turn these people away because it might turn out to be serious and you end up with a lawsuit.
>>In many areas there is no non emergency medical care available on weekends and after 5 PM<<
Patience is a virtue. If it’s not an emergency, wait until the next morning. We used to do that. When you had strep, you treated yourself and waiting to get into your doctor the next day.
Big whoop.
bump
What happens if you’re in a car crash after 5pm on Saturday nite?? Big Whoop? Can’t exactly wait til the next day now can ya.
This is better but not great. What needs to be done is cash up front for non=emergency visits. You will collect little by billing. In the State I live in you can not bill. You just do not get paid period. One step forward but not by much. I would estimate 80% at least of ER visits are not appropriate. When a patient shows up in the ER and sees a physician who knows nothing about them alot of tests are run just to keep the lawyers at arms length. I saw a patient of mine who had about 4,000 of testing done for abdominal pain that ended up being constipation. I can guarantee you if they had been seen by me in the office the bill would have been less than 100.00.
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